The Old Piano Tutor

Watching the two play together, it was as if they had a special connection that helped one another understand their feeling leading the other to respond with the same longing feeling of nostalgia. Nobody would be able to tell that they had never played together before. Could they have been fated to play music with each other? However, such a thing was foolish. For, there was no such thing as fate, just one's own ambitions.

The worker was mesmerized to see a duet between a piano and a gu zheng that he nearly bursted into tears!

"It was worth it staying here overtime..." He muttered joyfully with a wide smile on his face.

After the powerful and heart wrenching melody, Lotus finally lifted her hands from the twenty four strings and allowed Ren to finish his piano piece. After the piece, there was a dead silence when Jade's voice suddenly broke it as he applauds upon realizing that the music was over, "What a wonderful piece!"

"May I ask what was the name of that song?" The worker spoke up hesitantly, "I would like to bring this piece back to my parents for them to listen to."

"Eh?" Ren looked to him in bewilderment before muttering hesitantly, "But, this piece doesn't have a name..."

"Hah?!"

Azul looked to the man in disbelief when he heard this, "What do you mean it doesn't have a name?"

Ren muttered nervously, "Well, this piece was something that I made up on the spot. I mean, if you take the notes together and experiment with the pedals, you can create a melody according to your own wish. I just took a few notes and put them into cadences and keys then played them out experimenting with it."

Hearing this, Azul was confused, "What do you mean that you just thought up all of that on the spot?! That's not something that can be done easily, Ren!"

"Azul," Jade called over to him and wore a small smile as he had walked back from the piano set, "there's no need to worry about it. Since Ren has perfect pitch, I'm sure he can piece together the notes during his spare time."

"My apologies. It seems that I angered you that it wasn't a reputable piece." Ren said nervously.

"Ren." Azul grumbled at first wondering how he should respond before shaking his head and heaving a heavy sigh, "It's not a problem that this piece isn't something so famous right now. What you don't know is that it is very difficult to make up a piece on the spot. Nobody can make up a piece on the spot as you can..."

Azul grumbled hesitantly to himself in dismay before finally admitting with a scowl, "Your skills on piano... puts you in a higher standing than me in terms of skill. You are definitely a professional musician."

"This..." Ren grew more and more hesitant when he heard this coming from a talented dorm leader, "However, my tutor could randomly create songs the way I can. He doesn't even need to take time to think it through..."

This was the hundredth time he mentioned his piano tutor again! He understood that the Ebonvile family is a reputable noble family in the Valley of Thorns. However, how could this tutor continue to speak down upon a pupil that does have skills and talent?!

"Ren," Azul said with a scowl, "Who was your piano tutor?"

Ren frown, "Her name was Peg Li. She won an award five years ago for best musician in the Land of Pyroxene."

"Peg Li?" Lotus raised a brow as she felt that there was something off about that name...

"Peg Li. Could it be..." Azul frowned in dismay and looked to the shocked Jade.

"That woman..." Floyd raised a brow, "Wasn't she that show off that got caught copying her rival's music four years ago?"

"Eh?" Ren looked to Floyd in shock, "What do you mean?"

"Oh? Haven't you heard?" Jade looked to Ren in surprise, "Peg Li... Five years ago, she won the competition when her rival was accused of having plagiarized her music scores during the finals. Thus, she won the award by default."

"Take a look." Azul handed his smartphone to Ren who read the article in disbelief.

On it was an article describing the moment where evidence regarding her plagiarism came into light. She was caught by a security came in the Rose Kingdom and sent back to the Valley of Thorns bringing shame to the people in the country.

It was then that Lotus finally recalled that incident! Of course! Peg Li was that dumb woman that believed that as long as she can use her unique magic to copy whatever she wanted, she would have the chance to enter the elite world! Lotus could never forget such a strange woman since very few faes in the kingdom would dare to do anything to dishonor their own races and the Valley of Thorns was predominantly faes and ruled by faes. Yet, this woman could only think of the spot light and not her own identity. If anything she even looked down on the fact that she was just a musician and tried to take down the old library she was working at to turn into her own studio!

Of course, Lotus couldn't let something like this happen, so she informed the authorities over the fake papers that she had by switching the type of paper that was used to create the contract with some rough looking paper she constructed. She was smart enough to back down from taking the library at first till she decided that the first time was nothing but a fluke and tried to take it over a second time a year later. This time, that woman sent people to follow her home and it was there that Lotus caught them and turned them to the closest authority she could find, which just so happened to have been the old general friend of the human lawyer her parents connected with, reluctantly, to finalize her adoption papers!

When she learned who the mastermind was, she naturally didn't let her go the second time and, when Lotus learned of her ability, she knew something was off. After piecing everything together, she used her "hard" earned money to purchase many security cameras and crystal orbs to donate to the Rose kingdom making up the story that there had been an attempted arson at their performance hall. This way, knowing the leak of security, they would be more than happy to take in the "old" equipments to be installed into the building. With so many, they were able to place it in the rooms of the competitors and witnessed the entire situation on the big screens. At that time, Lotus was about to enter her teens and her parents had a difficult time calming her when she learned that the stupid woman wouldn't be thrown into the prisons, but stripped of her privileges.

She remembered the old general laughing upon hearing that she would prefer for the woman to be locked up to rot in a prison cell coming from a ten year old child. He had even said that his son would have wanted the woman to repay it with her life without even understanding the weight of his own words! However, he knew that Lotus wasn't just a smart girl at the time, but a very brave and filial girl to her adoptive parents that doesn't even share the same blood as her. Even when the lawyer was baffled by how she was able to speak on the same topic as adults at such a young age, the old general just laughed everything off and even praised her for her daring ideas! Since then, she had a very good impression of the old fae general and he had taught her a few lessons regarding war of magic!

As Lotus thought back on the old general, Ren was still dumbfounded to have learned the truth of the tutor he once admired. How could it have been possible?! However, the video was indeed that of his piano teacher!

However, his father had said that she chose not to teach him anymore because she was untalented. Could it have been because of this that she no longer taught?

But why did he lie? Was it to protect him from feeling betrayed?

Seeing the guy was rather disoriented with all of this evidence, Lotus took the phone out of his hands and handed it back to Azul as she said, "Since it's like this, you should just take a break. Since it turns out that Ren has a perfect pitch that helped him with the tuning, then this contest doesn't count. However... I do feel like having candies... Why not I get us a batch when the school store opens up again? Although... That does feel a little late... Should I just make some instead and have that till winter break is over?"